Hopefully I'll be able to go through everything I planned on my head.
I picked Heidi's animal keeping in mind Evan's fake animal would have to be similar in some way.
I did my own take on what Tera looks like, so if you want to know what I imagine her like, I could post it and link here? I have to ask permission to the base artist (bc I'm terrible at drawing humans, but somewhat decent at base editing). It's funny because I imply she looks a certain way in the fic, but that's not what I imagine her looking like at all.
16. Οκιακός
When she was young, Heidi's mom would tell her how lucky she was to have turned like her father, but would warn her that dragon blood still ran through her veins, and to be ready for what it would mean if it rose up. Her mom had been one of many turned in just the one, spooled caution tale after caution tale, tried to prepare her properly for the inevitable future.
Fate took her away before Evan was born, and his birth seemed almost prophetical for it, but Heidi took all that she was taught, all that she knew, and utilized it to keep him safe. But even if she had stayed alive, Heidi didn't think she would have advice for this situation.
Evan was a smart boy, finding an animal that not only excused him from shifting, but was close in appearance to her own, making it more believable. He kept that lie going for as long as he could before it exploded in his face, and Heidi knew it would eventually; but this was graver than two alphas finding Evan out.
Heidi knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that taking the young fire drake in would be only asking for trouble; but she was surprised by the look on Evan's face, eyes ablaze with a fierce determination to keep the kid in his arms out of harm's way, and Heidi found herself in that look. The girl would only bring problems, that she knew, but turning her away wasn't an option, not when Evan looked at her like that.
So Heidi smiled softly, approaching carefully and looking at hazel eyes.
"What's your name honey?"
The girl blinked at her, glancing quickly at Evan, who nodded with an encouraging smile of his own.
"I'm Tera"
It's been a long while since Heidi last heard someone speak draconic, particularly that young.
"Hello Tera, I'm Evan's mom, Heidi"
The girl lights up in a second, Evan chuckles a little; it puts her a little off balance, the way he looks, holding her like she's precious, and she isn't the only one affected. Though Connor keeps his distance, most likely weary that if he does get close it'll ruin their chances; his face betrays how badly he wants to step in, to join them.
It isn't hard to tell just how much the two care for this girl, and how willing they are to keep her safe and sound; the fact that Connor, who doesn't know her at all, chose to trust her with something so important to him, is a clear sign of how desperate their situation is. She turns to him and motions him to move closer.
"Why don't you tell me everything while we set a nest up?"
Connor gives her a look of thankfulness and relief that makes his entire body sag with him, and finally approaches; Tera makes motions towards him and Evan holds her to Connor, who takes her wordlessly, like this is a normal occurrence between them.
"Where do we start?"
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It took a bit, but eventually an old storage room became the space for Tera's new nest, the still boxed contents were moved to a corner of the Livingroom. All while Connor recounted the year taking care of Tera by himself, and then explained the real meeting with Evan while excluding what they both knew really drove Evan to the orchard in the first place; Heidi was bothered that Evan had lied about why he had shown Connor his shifted form, but ultimately understanding of Evan's mislead, as dragon related issues were always delicate things were keeping secrets was unavoidable.
"We're going to need a backstory for her, she can't stay cooped in the house all the time, particularly if she's used to more free range"
Evan finds himself sitting in the couch with Connor, a sleepy Tera nestled between them in her dragon form, and his mom has taken a chair as she sips on some tea she made for them now that work is over with.
Connor glances at Tera, and then at Evan, before he nods.
"That'd be good yeah; I don't want her to feel trapped"
Heidi takes another sip of her tea, the other two cups sit mostly untouched so far.
"We could say she's Evan's half-sister, and explain the differences on that"
"But not the smell"
Evan takes his cup for something to do with his hands.
"Actually, since you will probably end up coming around a lot, I might have an idea for that? It's not- not actually good, forget it"
Connor reaches over and squeezes his shoulder.
"I trust you"
Evan's heart skips a beat or four, and he looks away before he gets flustered and gives himself away.
"Well, you're gonna pretend you're uhm… interested in me, so it makes sense that you would try to get my sister to like you to get on my good side, you know?"
Connor squeezes his shoulder again; Evan brings the cup to his lips and swallows a few times.
"That should work! Now if you don't mind, I have to get ready for my night class; feel free to stay over Connor"
As she made her way back upstairs, to change and grab her things, Connor finally took his tea, drinking it almost nervously as he kept very stiff; eyes following her when she came back down in order to leave. When the door closed he put the cup down and slumped on the couch with a long sigh.
"Are you sure your mom isn't a dragon?"
"She's a maned wolf, why?"
Connor opens his mouth, shuts it promptly, springs up from his position and gives Evan the most 'are you for real?' look ever.
"Your mom, is a maned wolf"
"Yes?"
"As in, the animal that's called a fox on stilts"
Evan flushes.
"Shut up!"
Connor actually starts laughing, which is a sight Evan will commit to memory, even if he's being made fun of. Tera lifts her head to look at him and yawns, moving herself closer to Connor as she curls up.
Connor calms down and softens as he looks down to her, Evan tries not to let out a loud aw at the sight, but he gets all warm and tingly. Evan realizes that there's no way his feelings for Connor will remain a flickering fancy now, not when he's just signed himself up to see him in such a domestic setting.
No, this is different that the crushes he's had previously, but there's no chance in hell Evan will say anything about it, not just out of fear of ruining the tentative comradery they've built over protecting Tera, nor because of his low, low self-esteem; but because this was the wrong time to be talking about feelings. Not now that things were so complicated, and most likely not ever, Connor deserved better than the mess that was Evan, he could have something better, something normal; he was a shapeshifter, nobody would suspect him of being a dragon.
Hey so, remember that one fanart I talked abt that gave Evan a snake head? Well, the artist provided me with a link, so go show them love: post/174859763366/i-really-like-this-story-called-tera-by; their knowledge of dragon and understanding of my horn descriptions are top tier.
